


Your stars, alight

by nea_writes



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Mutual Pining, when your overprotective brother actually helps you score
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 07:50:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9874295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nea_writes/pseuds/nea_writes
Summary: Sometimes, when they sat close enough that their arms and legs aligned, on the bus or in class, or maybe while eating, she thought of it. Of reaching out to hold his hand, of resting her head against his shoulder, of hugging him, chest against his and nestled against his neck, tucked under his chin.She thought of kissing him, of what it might be like.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kandayuu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kandayuu/gifts).



> This was so fun to write!! These two are so cute, and writing them cute and in love is even better. Mentions of scarves, freckles, and pizza!

College, Lenalee thought, wasn’t like she thought it would be.

Sure, there were the standard warnings. Endless essays, professors who didn’t give a shit, stress, sleepless nights, parties and booze and those horrible looking plastic storage bins filled with God knows what combination of liquids - she’d heard all that. She’d heard even more about  _ the boys  _ from her brother. 

But Lenalee had developed a filter that turned everything Komui said about ‘those horrible disgusting boys’ and notched it down by maybe fifty levels. It didn’t help though that Lenalee had gone most of her life hearing those warnings, and all of highschool left her lonely and single.

College, she thought, was the perfect time to change that.

Maybe because she was a hundred miles away and not many from her hometown knew her, but everyone had the odd assumption that she’d dated before - that she’d done  _ lots  _ of things before - but that wasn’t true. 

In the end, college was a lot like people said, and then more than that. The parties were more extreme, the classes were endless - as were the essays and projects  - and the people were so much more different. She could go from walking on cloud nine with friends to near tears as the clock counted down to midnight and she still had a thousand more words to write on an essay.

All in all, she loved it. What she loved even more, though, were the friends she made.

Kanda Yuu was someone from her hometown, and she’d known him since childhood. They met at least weekly or more often for casual lunch dates, and she’d felt more secure knowing she wasn’t all alone.

Allen Walker went to the local high school as a senior and was intent on joining her college come the next year. They met through the various jobs he worked, and because his godfather was Komui’s old time friend and someone ‘to never ever even on the threat of death  _ ever  _ talk to.’

And then there was Lavi. 

She first met him the fall semester in her required introduction to psychology class. Well, rather, that was where she first noticed him. He was hard to miss, six feet tall with a startling bright shock of thick red hair. He dressed brightly, even in the cold winter months, and always had a scarf. Everything about him screamed  _ mystery  _ and Lenalee couldn’t help but glance at him every time she had class. 

It only took two days before she found out his name after he eagerly answered a professor’s question.  _ Lavi,  _ he said, grinning, confidence in every inch of his body. Afterwards, she couldn’t help but notice everything about him. The cut of his jaw, the color of his hair, the different scarves he had and the boots he seemed to love. 

She didn’t talk to him until he invited himself to her weekly dates with Kanda.

Lenalee swore her heart stopped when she stepped into the usual diner and saw Lavi sitting beside Kanda, who looked even angrier than usual. Taking halting steps, Lenalee stopped and took a deep breath, steeling her nerves. There was nothing to be nervous about - he didn’t know her, he had probably never even noticed her. He didn’t always look around in the hopes that he might just catch a glimpse of her. There was nothing to be nervous about.

Throwing her shoulders back and lifting her chin, Lenalee confidently strutted through the diner and hoped to God no one noticed when she stumbled on the leg of a chair sticking too far out, heels clacking noisily. Sliding into the booth beside Kanda, Lenalee threw Lavi a polite smile - and oh God oh God  _ please  _ don’t let him notice the blush burning on her cheeks right now - and tilted her head inquisitively at Kanda.

He sneered a little, fingers busy texting someone, but he answered her silent question. “This is the rabbit. He insisted on coming to see who I was ‘dating’.” He lifted one hand to quote the words before finally locking his phone and looking up.

“Oh,” Lenalee said, turning to face Lavi who seemed supremely confused. “So  _ this  _ is the rabbit.” Kanda had complained about him often enough that Lenalee was proud he’d made a friend worth sticking around for, but never in a million years had she thought it would be Lavi of all people. Deciding that there was no way on earth anyone could have possibly missed him, she said, “We have pysch together, right?”

“We do, we do,” Lavi said with a grin, before throwing Kanda a sharp look. “You didn’t say you were dating pretty Miss Lee here, Yuu.” Lenalee could feel her cheeks burning, and she prayed Lavi would attribute it to the cold weather outside.

Quick as lightning Kanda grabbed his fork and stabbed it not a centimeter from Lavi’s pinky finger, who yelped and pulled it back. “Don’t  _ call me  _ that! And anyways, I’m not dating her.”

Lenalee laughed and pried the fork from Kanda’s fingers, setting it aside. “He’s right,” she said, finally thinking to look away from Lavi’s very green eye and open her menu. “We’ve known each other since we were kids - he’s more like my brother.”

“Oh,” Lavi said, sounding relieved, and Lenalee clutched her menu tighter, refusing to look up. He was just relieved Kanda hadn’t actually stabbed him, she told herself,  _ not  _ because they weren’t dating. “I should spread the good news then! Everyone’s been dying to know if you two were together. Too hot to be single,” he laughed lightly and Lenalee focused very hard on the drink she wanted to order and not on the words ‘too hot’. 

“I haven’t introduced myself - here, I’m Lavi.”

Finally looking up, she felt all her tense energy ease as she took in his warm smile and bright gaze, freckles sprinkled over his nose and wayward red hair falling everywhere.

“I’m Lenalee.”

* * *

 

“Home sweet home!” Lavi sang, closing the door behind him as Lenalee hung up her jacket, snagging one of Lavi’s scarves that had fallen to the floor and hooking her backpack’s straps on one shoulder.

“You’ve only been gone two hours,” Lenalee said dryly, rubbing her thumbs over the scarf’s material idly. 

Lavi’s voiced trailed behind him as he walked into the kitchen. “Two hours too long!” His red head poked back out, eye bright. “Do you want to order a pizza?”

“Do you even have to ask?” She asked with a laugh, hanging the scarf and heading further into Lavi’s living room. It was just heading into spring into her first year and still a bit too cold for her tastes, but his apartment was warm and the hot chocolate he brought her was even better. “Thank you,” she said, smiling up at him and wondering how she could have ever thought she wouldn’t fall for him.

He shrugged her thanks off as he always did, a bit graceless but still pleased. Lavi had grown up in a strict household with an exacting grandfather, he’d told her late one night, breathing clouds into the cold night sky that blurred the distant stars. It made gratitude an odd thing to receive for him, and Lenalee firmly decided to always show her appreciation, even for the simplest things.

With that in mind, she stretched her legs under the coffee table and rested her chin on it, turning to regard him fondly. “Thanks for going with me,” she said, watching the steam from her mug rise into the air, curling. None of Lenalee’s other friends had cared to brace the winter chill for a quick walk through town on errands, but Lavi had.

Lavi laughed and shook his head, settling on the floor beside her and on the left side of the table as he took out his books out from his backpack. “It was nothing,” he said, but his cheeks were a faint pink and Lenalee sipped from her mug proudly. “Anyways, let’s get some of this work out of the way!”

Giggling at his exuberance, Lenalee took her own stack of homework out, musing how much had changed from her first semester to now. After that first meeting they never stopped - study groups, lunch together, sitting beside each other in class, to eventually just hanging out in each other’s rooms. The mystery slowly unraveled into a boy from a too-strict family raised with too many expectations, a boy who found his freckles childish and embarrassing but didn’t mind wearing themed headbands while he studied, hair sticking up in every odd direction, and a boy who was so much more than he seemed. He chose their college because it was just the right distance between far away and close to home, and he befriended Kanda because he saw that when Kanda said  _ Leave me the fuck alone  _ he meant  _ Don’t talk so loud in a library. _

He was the best friend Lenalee never had - willing to be loud, embarrassing, fun, exciting, mischievous and even a bit bad. There were things about him that became more apparent the longer she knew him - how he put up a larger than life facade, how calculating he was, how sensitive - things that sometimes made her nervous. But, at the root of it all, he was a good person and a good friend, and, possibly, maybe a little more.

Lavi sat cross-legged, and Lenalee’s stocking covered feet were just inches away. Under the pretense of settling more comfortably, she shifted her legs and brushed his knee. Lavi’s shoulders jolted, and Lenalee ducked her head, hiding her beaming smile. Best of all, he was  _ aware of her.  _ Just like she was of him.

Her phone rang suddenly, startling both of them into jumping a foot into the air. Laughing nervously, Lenalee retrieved her cell from her bag and checked the message. It was from Komui, telling her he’d be arriving that coming Friday to take her home for her school break. Replying with a quick acknowledgement, Lenalee muted her cell and put it away, smiling slightly. Overbearing as Komui had been, Lenalee still missed him a lot. 

“Who was that?” Lavi asked, voice held lightly, hands still poised over work that he hadn’t filled in at all. Lenalee’s own work was still mind-numbingly bare. 

“My brother.” Lenalee said. Lavi knew his name but saying  _ Komui  _ always felt a bit too weird. He was always Brother.

“Oh,” Lavi said simply, looking down for a moment, seemingly debating something, then glancing at her again. “He was why you didn’t date in high school, right?”

Mortified, Lenalee blushed even harder when her  _ “What?”  _ came out in a high pitched peal, almost painful sounding. Lavi grinned, unashamed and even a bit excited. “How do you even  _ know  _ that I didn’t date?” She demanded, resisting the urge to take her scarf and smother her red face in it.

“Well, you just told me,” Lavi chuckled, twiddling his pencil in one hand, a rhythmic  _ tap tap tap  _ against the table. “And anyways, no brother with a sister who already dated would bother with harassing me  _ about  _ dating said sister.

_ “No,”  _ Lenalee groaned, pulling one end of her scarf over her nose and eyes in a horrified attempt to hide. “Please tell me he didn’t talk to you.”

“Yuu has no mercy - I’m pretty sure he didn’t even hesitate to hand over my number just to avoid talking to Komui.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered, muffled against the thick fabric. “Oh my  _ God he’s so embarrassing!” _

This was it. Komui had officially ruined her chances of ever dating Lavi because there was no way he’d be interested in a girl with an overprotective nigh-homicidal brother who left threatening messages and calls. 

Lavi continued undeterred, even excitedly. “One of his messages said  _ my adorable beautiful amazing sister mentions you way too many times whenever we talk.” _

This was it. This was how Lenalee would die. No, first she’d throttle Komui, then maybe Kanda because wow how could he throw her under a bus like that? And then finally herself from sheer mortification. 

But before she could do any of that, she needed to pretend everything was okay. “I am so sorry,” she said, lowering her scarf to just beneath her eyes. She focused on the dark green of his turtleneck - it had been a christmas gift from her, along with a red-hued multi-colored scarf. “My brother is completely ridiculous and embarrassing and oh my God I can’t believe he did that-” and she was babbling non-stop now. 

Except, Lavi was laughing hard enough to have tears in his eyes. Without any hesitation he reached out and pulled her scarf away, startling her into a gasp and immediately stopping the torrential word flow. He slowly lowered his hand, resting the end of her scarf down straight from her shoulder, fingers lingering just a bit before pulling away. “It’s okay, it’s okay - no sweat,” Lavi finally said, and Lenalee noticed he had long since stopped tapping his pencil. 

“No it’s not,” Lenalee muttered, looking away from him and to their work that was definitely not going to be finished today. 

“I didn’t say it because it upset me,” Lavi began, and Lenalee’s shoulders stiffened, hands falling to her legs to bunch at her skirt. Lavi was so sensitive and wore so many faces. It was always a bit hard to tell when he lied for others’ benefit. “Really. I just - I said it because I wanted to know. If you dated - are dating,  _ would _ date-” Lavi cut himself off, scowling.

It was so ridiculous it made Lenalee laugh a little, a bit of her horror easing away. Oh, Komui was  _ definitely  _ getting an earful from her later, but right now the pink in Lavi’s cheeks was much more arresting. “I didn’t,” Lenalee finally said, pushing down any embarrassment over it. “But I would, if anyone asked me.”

“Anyone?” Lavi asked, aghast. Lenalee frowned at him. 

“Not  _ anyone  _ -but if I wanted ‘anyone’ I could have ‘anyone’.” Who cared if Lavi thought she was too loose or something. She was done with men policing who she could see or date. 

“No, that’s not what I meant!” Lavi said, back-tracking hastily. “I just wanted to know if there was anyone. Someone you were interested in.”

“Oh,” she said, mildly regretting her outburst but not too much. Better to establish that then to let it settle like lead weight between them. “I guess,” she confessed, looking down at her hands again. Taking a shuddering breath, she looked up, meeting his gaze determinedly as she said, “I might.” Let him take that as he will, she thought nervously, heart pounding a mile a minute in her chest.

He said something softly under his breath.  _ Oh,  _ maybe. A moment passed in silence and Lenalee desperately wondered where the delivery man was. She opened her mouth to say something, anything to break the silence, but Lavi beat her to it.

“So you’ve never kissed someone?” He blurted. It took her a second to process the words but when she did she flushed, still meeting his stare determinedly.

“No, I haven’t,” she ground out. Was he teasing her? About having no experience? 

Lavi’s lips pressed thinly against each other and he cast about before he met her eyes. He took a deep breath before saying, “Would you like to?”

Blinking she reared back, hitting the sofa behind her with a soft thump. Oh.  _ Oh.  _

Sometimes, when they sat close enough that their arms and legs aligned, on the bus or in class, or maybe while eating, she thought of it. Of reaching out to hold his hand, of resting her head against his shoulder, of hugging him, chest against his and nestled against his neck, tucked under his chin. Of kissing him, of what it might be like.

Did she? Want to kiss him?

Oh, who was she kidding,  _ of course  _ she did!

A bit nervous, she ducked her chin into the edge of her scarf, the fabric teasing at her lips like a promise of what was to come. Her cheeks were warm enough that she actually wanted to take off a layer and her scarf, but instead twiddled her fingers together. Exhaling softly, she finally said, “Yes.”

Lavi laughed nervously, running his fingers through his hair and dislodging a few pins that had held some of his bangs back in the winter wind. They clattered onto the table and fell silently onto the carpeted floor. Spurred on, Lavi shifted closer until only the corner of the table separated them, and she leaned forward when he did.

His hand was large and warm as he cradled her cheek, fingers a bit rough and calloused but gentle. She leaned into the touch, but startled when his thumb traced her bottom lip, pulling on it just a little. It left her hyperaware, of his knees touching her thigh and the heat from his arm almost tangible through her clothes. Her fingers curled in the carpet, nails catching on whorls, and even sitting down her knees were weak. It almost made her want to laugh. 

Her heart was pounding in her ears, loud enough to fill the silence of his empty apartment. Belatedly, she wished she’d applied lip balm, or gloss, or even lipstick. The image of Lavi covered in lipstick, in  _ her  _ kisses, was tempting. 

When his thumb passed over again, back, she turned her lips into it, pressing a kiss into the palm of his hand before shyly glancing up at him, wondering if that was weird. The way his breath hitched, no longer smiling but gaze heated where it raked across her face, told her it was more than okay. 

“Close your eyes.” he whispered, and she did, lashes fluttering shut, but still searching for him. 

Butterfly soft, like the beginning of a spring rain, he kissed her. Chaste, sweetly. The tension in her shoulders bled away, down her arms and to her fingertips where they relaxed, but it sent a jolt of nervous energy up her back and into her legs, knees drawing together. When he pulled away she chased him for a just a moment, but his hand held her back. Before the embarrassment at her eagerness could settle in he kissed her again, once, twice, and her left hand came up, wrapping around his wrist. 

He leaned his forehead against hers and Lenalee licked her lips, tasting the sweetness from his hot chocolate, and realized she wanted more. 

Where Lavi was content to bask in the moment she pulled him closer, one hand on his wrist and the other reaching for him, settling on the back of his neck where she bunched the turtleneck, fingers twisting in his red hair, locks curling around. He laughed breathlessly a moment before she kissed him, again and again, full-lipped and closed. 

After a few he took over, pulling her bottom lip, and she jolted, slightly shocked. Her hand trailed from his wrist, up his arm and shoulder to join at his nape, and he moved closer until they were nearly chest to chest, the angle twisting her waist weird but so worth it.

It was more than she imagined or hoped or even thought of. It was everything, and she wanted to kiss him over and over until she could never forget the shape of his lips, the cologne he wore or the print of his fingertips on her face, cradling her.

The loud buzzing of the doorbell startled them, Lavi jerking away like she burned him. It left her dazzled, hands grasping in the empty space where he had been.

“Oh,” he said, laughing nervously, both hands running through his hair and looking at everything but her. She lifted a hand to her lips, fingertips catching on her bottom lip, and the movement drew his attention until they were just looking at each other.

It wasn’t until the bell buzzed again that Lavi blinked and jumped up. It was too quick and he stumbled from the blood rush, foot catching on the table’s legs and making him hop across the floor all the while laughing.

It made Lenalee giggle too, and she flopped back on the floor, hands clasped over her face, laughing loud enough that she almost couldn’t hear the delivery man over it. Still, she had enough presence of mind to sit up and clear the table of their work, cheeks burning and nerves jumping, alive. 

When Lavi came back with the pizza, they sat just a bit closer, and she didn’t hesitate to take his hand this time, fingers intertwining. The smile Lavi gave her was brilliant and dazzling. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Lavi asking Lena to kiss in this voice,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ytqr2RN-YE) courtesy of amazing beta Peadles.


End file.
